


head in the clouds

by A_Confused_Kitten



Series: through storm clouds and clear skies [1]
Category: His Dark Materials (TV), His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Genre: 500 Words Challenge, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Non Consensual Daemon Touching, Pre-Canon, he's not dead or anything i'm just mean, ish, not a happy fic, probably not canon either, rip lee scorseby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:34:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27774685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Confused_Kitten/pseuds/A_Confused_Kitten
Summary: And it’s been hours and hours, but Lee can still feel it. Still feel that damned pull in his chest, and Hester hasn’t stopped chattering, both for his comfort and her own, hasn’t stopped moving around, hasn’t stopped shifting and Lee still can’t stop shaking because-No one has ever touched Hester before.
Relationships: Lee Scoresby & Hester
Series: through storm clouds and clear skies [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2036617
Comments: 4
Kudos: 47





	head in the clouds

On days like this, the sky has never felt so far away. 

His bones ache, and his head spins, because that’s the way it’s always been. Bruises cover his skin and blood drips from a cut under his eye, and his body can’t stop trembling. This is the way Lee’s always lived, though, and he can take it. 

He can handle the beatings and the cruel words and raising himself. He’s done it for years, fourteen of them to be exact, and he’s no stranger to this life. Ever since his mother left, he’s been living like this. 

Lee can handle it, he knows he can, but today-

Today, his father went after _Hester._

And it’s been hours and hours, but Lee can still feel it. Still feel that damned pull in his chest, and Hester hasn’t stopped chattering, both for his comfort and her own, hasn’t stopped moving, hasn’t stopped shifting and changing and Lee still can’t stop shaking because-

No one has ever touched Hester before. 

No one is supposed to even _think_ about touching her, because to touch one’s daemon is to touch their very soul, and his father, washed up on moonshine, had lunged forward and. 

One minute, Lee had been fine, prepared to run, but uninjured, and then he was screaming as his father’s fist clenched tight around Hester’s ears. Screaming because he was being violated, screaming because there was a tug in his chest and his heart was on fire and-

“Lee?” Hester calls, her hare-like form tense. “Lee, you’re scaring me, right now. You’re never this quiet.”

“’m fine,” he says, after a moment, and they both know it’s not true. Hester doesn’t argue, though. Not when it’s so achingly clear he’s not, because the lie rattles deep within their bones. No, she doesn’t argue, because they both know what the words mean. 

“I’m fine,” Lee insists, and lays back against the ground. It’s solid and hard, and to his bruises and stiff muscles, it’s terrible, but he doesn’t pay that any attention. 

What he _does_ do is rest an arm under his head, and look at the sky. 

Clear and blue, stretching on forever without a cloud in sight. The sky is freedom personified, the one true place to escape from the troubles of the world. It’s change, always coming and going, like the clouds that fill it, and it’s everything Lee has ever wanted from life.

A chance to be free, and a chance to make a change. 

A chance for love, maybe, and a chance for connection. To have what he’s never gotten from this small town they’re trapped in.

“We’re goin’ to be up there, one day.” He says, and Hester nods. He can feel it in his very soul that the words are true. “We’re goin’ to be up there and we’re goin’ to be free of this place, and somehow, we’re goin’ to make a difference in this damn world.”

 _One day,_ he thinks, _we’ll be free._

**Author's Note:**

> So! My best friend watched and read His Dark Materials when the show came out last year, and I was up until 5am watching the first season in one night, and the the first episodes of the second season in a night. And of course, because I always get attached to the rogue-ish character in leather (see: Edward Elric, Killian Jones, etc), I am absolutely in love with Lee Scorseby. 
> 
> I may do a 500 word series focusing on him, with at least a fic focusing on his (platonic) relationship with Iorek, and one about him and Lyra, so what are are your guys' thoughts on that?


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